Shape - but Not Size - Codivergence between Male and Female Copulatory Structures in Onthophagus Beetles
Open Access
- 14 December 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 6 (12), e28893
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028893
Abstract
Genitalia are among the fastest evolving morphological traits in arthropods. Among the many hypotheses aimed at explaining this observation, some explicitly or implicitly predict concomitant male and female changes of genital traits that interact during copulation (i.e., lock and key, sexual conflict, cryptic female choice and pleiotropy). Testing these hypotheses requires insights into whether male and female copulatory structures that physically interact during mating also affect each other's evolution and patterns of diversification. Here we compare and contrast size and shape evolution of male and female structures that are known to interact tightly during copulation using two model systems: (a) the sister species O. taurus (1 native, 3 recently established populations) and O. illyricus, and (b) the species-complex O. fracticornis-similis-opacicollis. Partial Least Squares analyses indicated very little to no correlation between size and shape of copulatory structures, both in males and females. Accordingly, comparing shape and size diversification patterns of genitalia within each sex showed that the two components diversify readily - though largely independently of each other - within and between species. Similarly, comparing patterns of divergence across sexes showed that relative sizes of male and female copulatory organs diversify largely independent of each other. However, performing this analysis for genital shape revealed a signature of parallel divergence. Our results therefore suggest that male and female copulatory structures that are linked mechanically during copulation may diverge in concert with respect to their shapes. Furthermore, our results suggest that genital divergence in general, and co-divergence of male and female genital shape in particular, can evolve over an extraordinarily short time frame. Results are discussed in the framework of the hypotheses that assume or predict concomitant evolutionary changes in male and female copulatory organs.Keywords
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- MorphoJ: an integrated software package for geometric morphometricsMolecular Ecology Resources, 2010
- Differential recruitment of limb patterning genes during development and diversification of beetle hornsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- Pitfalls in understanding the functional significance of genital allometryJournal of Evolutionary Biology, 2009
- Mosaic pattern of genital divergence in three populations of Schistocerca lineata Scudder, 1899 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Cyrtacanthacridinae)Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008
- Rapid shape divergences between natural and introduced populations of a horned beetle partly mirror divergences between speciesEvolution & Development, 2008
- The evolution of male genitalia: functional integration of genital sclerites in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurusBiological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008
- Evolution of male genitalia: environmental and genetic factors affect genital morphology in two Drosophila sibling species and their hybridsBMC Evolutionary Biology, 2007
- Requirement of abdominal-A and Abdominal-B in the developing genitalia of Drosophila breaks the posterior downregulation ruleDevelopment, 2006
- Relative influence of male and female genital morphology on paternity in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurusBehavioral Ecology, 2005
- Genital morphology and fertilization success in the dung beetleOnthophagus taurus: an example of sexually selected male genitaliaProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2003